The Case Of The Smiling Stiffs 1973 Screenplay by Jerry Hayling and others, direction by Sean S Cunningham and Brud Talbot. The film is listed on the IMDb under the original title Case Of The Full Moon Murders, that's not the title of the copy on YouTube. I couldn't find posters or promo material with the original title and very little material for the re-title either. It's tagline is The First Sex Rated Whodunnit! It was called Sex On The Groove Tube in Canada. It's working title was Silver Cock. If you watch you'll see why.
Some of the cast and crew had just worked on Wes Craven's 1972 film The Last House On The Left which had been produced by Sean S Cunningham. Sean would co-create and direct Friday The 13th in 1980 and work on some of the sequels. He produced House and House II: The Second Story and several other horror films. The only other film he directed that I know I've seen is Deep Star Six.
It's a softcore parody of Dragnet with Fred J Lincoln as Joe and Ron Millkie as Frank. The pair of homicide detectives are investigating a series of monthly murders, men have been found dead, their faces frozen in a smiling grin and their members stiff with rigor. The detectives see some action in the line of duty.
Sheila Stuart is the gal doing the killings. Once a month she gets the urge to go down on a guy, problem is she's a vampire who can turn into a bat and her sucking is fatal. She flies through the open window of an unsuspecting sleeping man, turns back into a woman and puts that final smile on her victim's face.
Harry Reems plays a reporter investigating the murders. He winds up in the sack with several of the women who answer his knock. In a bit of foreshadowing one of the ladies mentions she couldn't take him everyday and she can hardly get her toes uncurled the next day. Harry will come save the day at the end of the film.
There's plenty of naked ladies and sexy times but it's all softcore. It's the first film for Jean Jennings, she'd appear in a handful of hardcore films and then leave the business. There's some jokes, some work and some don't, and plenty of slapstick. It's a pretty poorly written and directed film, partly because they ran out of money before the film was finished. It did make me laugh but it's not something I would want to buy, especially since it's free on YouTube. You might like it, you might not.
Comments